SIU clears Peel cop in arrest, death of 34-year-old Brampton man

Ontario's police watchdog has cleared a Peel Region officer of any potential criminal wrongdoing in the death of a 34-year-old man in the midst of a mental health crisis last year.

Special Investigations Unit Director Joseph Martino said Wednesday he found no "reasonable grounds" to conclude the officer committed a crime in his arrest of Peter Campbell in a hallway of a Brampton apartment building during the early morning hours of April 2, 2023.

During the arrest, the officer in question put his right knee on Campbell's back for roughly 20 seconds as he and another officer tried to subdue him, Martino wrote in his report about the investigation. After he was handcuffed, Campbell was left in a prone position on his stomach for about 35 seconds seconds before he was rolled onto his side.

The officers then observed Campbell was "going purple" and losing consciousness. Both the officers and responding paramedics attempted to revive Campbell using CPR, but he was declared dead at Brampton Civic Hospital a short time later.

Campbell had previously been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was having a schizophrenic episode when police were called to the building. Campbell lived in a unit with his brother, Jason Campbell, and Jason's two sons.

In an interview 10 days after Campbell's death, Jason told CBC Toronto his brother had begun stomping on the floor of his room shortly after midnight. He then started to smash various objects, which prompted Jason to take his two children to their mother's home. When Jason returned, he found Campbell lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

Martino noted in his report that when Peel police arrived at the building, Campbell was naked, unresponsive and bleeding from wounds caused by rolling in glass. There was blood in the unit, as well as in the hallway where police found him. 

Martino also found the responding officers were advised by witnesses at the scene Campbell sometimes had episodes after using crack cocaine, though it was unclear if he had used the drug that night.

Dispatchers also told the officers Campbell was known to police to "be violent," "carry weapons" and "resist arrest." Two months earlier, Cambpell had his arm broken while he was arrested by Peel police at his mother's home after he began acting erratically, Jason and his sister, Michelle Campbell, told CBC Toronto.

The night of Campbell's death, Jason expressed to the officers he was concerned for his brother's safety given his previous interaction with Peel police. Officers were aware Campbell had no access to weapons and was not suicidal, Jason said.

Martino noted in his report the officer assured Jason that Campbell's safety was his main priority, and also that the officer repeatedly told Campbell "we are not going to hurt you" during the arrest. The responding officers intended to arrest Campbell under the Mental Health Act and take him to hospital for treatment, Martino said.

Jason told CBC Toronto he pleaded with the officers to send only paramedics because Campbell required medical attention and was non-violent, and he would respond negatively if confronted by police.

Subject officer had to make quick decision, SIU says

Evidence in Martino's investigation included police body-worn camera video, security video from the building and interviews with seven civilian witnesses and one witness police officer. The officer investigated by the SIU declined to be interviewed or provide his notes, which was his legal right under Ontario law.

According to the pathologist that autopsied Campbell, his cause of death was the "toxic effects of cocaine, fentanyl, and bromazolam in the setting of prone restraint with compression of the thorax in an obese man," the report said. Bromazolam is a designer sedative with effects similar to other benzodiazepines.

"With respect to the force used by the [subject officer] in aid of the complainant's arrest, namely, the use of his knee to keep the complainant pinned on the floor as he was being handcuffed behind the back, I am unable to reasonably conclude it was unjustified," Martino wrote in his report.

As for the use of handcuffs on Campbell, Martino concluded the officer could not be sure he was not a threat, "given his destructive behaviour a short time prior and cautions on the complainant's police record regarding violence and resisting arrest."

"With all this in mind, the [subject officer] had a difficult decision to make and only seconds in which to make it," Martino wrote.

Martino went on to note the officers left Campbell in a prone position after he was handcuffed, "which might have played a role in his death."

"In the circumstances, if the [subject officer] ought to have moved quicker than he did, I am not reasonably satisfied that his transgression amounted to a marked departure from a reasonable standard of care," he wrote in the report.

In the wake of Campbell's death, his siblings called for mental health experts to be more involved in police responses to people in crisis. 

"I feel like there's an injustice for people who suffer with mental health," Michelle Campbell told CBC Toronto in April 2023. "They deserve to be treated as anybody else would."